Celcom to invest up toRM300 million in LTE technology

KUALA LUMPUR: Celcom Axiata Bhd plans to invest up to RM300 million over the next three years on ongoing network modernisation to fully support the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

This is in line with the company’s data ubiquity initiatives for seamless data connectivity across cellular, WiFi and integrated high speed broadband networks over a variety fixed, mobile or nomadic devices.

Chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly said Celcom was ready to serve the LTE, or 4G service, in January 2013 once it gets the government’s nod.

“The approval is expected to be announced by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission later today, and we are ready for it,” he told a media briefing on Celcom’s third quarter financial results here yesterday.

The leading telecommunications provider posted a higher profit after tax and minority interests (PATAMI) of RM583 million for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2012.

The figure was 16 per cent better compared with the RM502 million registered in the same quarter of last year.

Revenue rose by six per cent to RM1.94 billion from RM1.83 billion previously.

For the nine-month period, Celcom’s PATAMI was up 15 per cent to RM1.7 billion from the RM1.5 billion posted in the same period last year.

Its revenue improved by eight per cent to RM5.8 billion from RM5.3 billion previously.

The bullish performance was supported by continued momentum across all key products – mobile broadband, foreign worker markets and Celcom First voice plans.

Celcom’s total subscriber base had reached 12.4 million, mobile broadband surpassed the one million subscriber mark while mobile and nomadic data services continued their upward performance, with 2.62 million smart phones and 170,000 tablets on the company’s network to date.

Going forward, Celcom will be expanding its focus on new digital services that will be empowered by its widest, fast and stable nation wide network and Celcom Territory advantages.

On outlook, he said 2013 would be a challenging year for Celcom as the market would remain competitive especially in the data and voice business segment.

The network application for the smart phone would remain favourable as the demand for this gadget was increasing
coupled with the government, initiative to encourage the usage of smart phones, he added.

He expects this segment to surpass the 30 per cent mark next year from 22 per cent currently with more aggressive participation from telecommunications companies in the digital space. — Bernama

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